Joe Biden dines at Wilmington Italian restaurant Mrs. Robino’s

Ayush February 13, 2024

President Joe Biden has continued his love of revisiting familiar places when he is in Delaware.

The president, who was staying at his Greenville home this past weekend, spent part of Saturday dining with his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, at Mrs. Robino’s Restaurant. The landmark Italian-American restaurant on Union Street in Wilmington’s Little Italy neighborhood has been a part of the Delaware dining community since 1940.

Owens, who hugged her brother after they left the restaurant, told reporters: “He’s a wonderful man. That’s what I have to say.”

She said lunch was “good” and added: “I didn’t have to cook.”

The president didn’t speak to reporters.

Where does President Biden like to eat?

Biden is known as a longtime lover of Italian foods. He was a frequent visitor to the long-gone Katie’s Restaurant before the Wilmington Italian-American restaurant two blocks from Union at Sixth and Scott streets closed. Biden, when he was a senator, also mentioned the restaurant in the 2008 vice presidential debate.

In December, the president and his son Hunter went “old-school” Wilmington and lunched at Rocco Italian Grill & Sports Bar at Seventh and Union streets in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood that’s run by Susan Rocco.

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Many may remember it as the site of the former Pala’s Cafe, home of the “world’s worst pizza.”

Mrs. Robino’s Restaurant is about two blocks away from Rocco Italian Grill.

On a humorous note, at least for longtime Delawareans, one United Kingdom media site called Mrs. Robino’s “ a little-known Italian restaurant in the Delaware city of Wilmington.”

Why Delaware loves Mrs. Robino’s

Mrs. Robino’s, one of the state’s best-known restaurants, has been doing what would probably doom most other eateries: It has remained almost the same as when it first opened 84 years ago.

Gondoliers grace the menus and tables are set with paper place mats decorated with recipes for classic cocktails like a Pink Lady.

Portions are formidable for the spaghetti, cheese ravioli, lasagna and porkette platter, but prices are not. Photo collages of longtime customers decorate walls.

Loyalists who have been twirling forks through the homemade pasta and sopping up the red sauce with bread there for decades pass along the Delaware eating tradition to other family members.

Mrs. Robino’s also has been spotlighted on Food Network star Guy Fieri’s longtime series, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” In 2019, Fieri parked his signature red, vintage Camaro convertible outside of Mrs. Robino’s at 520 N. Union St. and filmed the restaurant’s staff and customers.

Guy Fieri in Delaware:Mrs. Robino’s gets a starring role on ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’

President Biden and Delaware’s ‘Little Italy’

President Biden has strong ties to Wilmington’s Little Italy neighborhood. He has attended church at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Ninth and DuPont streets, was close to pastor emeritus the late Father Roberto Balducelli, and St. Anthony’s church was the site of his son Beau’s funeral in 2015.

Biden also has frequently attended St. Anthony’s Italian Festival over the years and has shopped at Papa’s Food Market on West Sixth Street.

The president and first lady Jill Biden sometimes visit local restaurants when they’re in Delaware. They’ve dined at the Quoin hotel in Wilmington (it’s owned by longtime family friends Rob and Chris Buccini), Bardea Food & Drink in Wilmington, as well as Matt’s Fish Camp and Egg, both in Rehoboth Beach.